The purpose of monitoring systems for machine tools is to monitor the machining process by means of the machine tool. Additional elements, such as torques, drive powers and/or forces, can also be recorded and continually compared with a pre-determined process. Any deviations that may occur indicate an error in the process and a warning signal can be emitted, or the machining process halted. A method of this type is described in DE 10 2009 025 167 B3.
To be able to quickly recognise errors in the machining process, the monitoring process has to work at a high sampling rate, meaning that a large number of measured values must be recorded and processed per time unit.
Despite the advantages provided by monitoring a machining process, it has thus far, for the most part, only been possible to conduct process monitoring in mass production.